Approached a local PC supplier/builder for a fairly low-cost PC to mainly do photo-editing on but also to play a few PC games (not expecting it to run anything recent at highest settings at all). I've been quoted for a Lenovo PC, to act as the "base", and then upgrade costs to that (for example, increasing HDD to 1TB and also improving graphics capability by moving away from the on-board graphics and adding a better card).

Is this a sensible approach? I used to build PCs but I really can't be bothered anymore and would rather just buy a pre-built one, even though that goes against the advice I would have given myself 10 years ago. I just don't know whether these Lenovo's, with upgrades applied, would be any good.

Spec is: Intel I3-3220, 4gb RAM, 500gb Hdd and Windows 7 but with the following upgrades:

1TB HDD, 8gb RAM. For £470+vat. Would also need to upgrade graphics card as that's just using onboard.

Without the graphics card that's £400 inc vat, so £70 saving, plus £83 quid for the vat. So total saved £153, and you'd arguably get a better PSU and case. Only thing is a keyboard and mouse if you need them, which won't be more than £20-30 for half decent ones.

I am tempted to do this, but I'm just in lazy mode and can't be bothered to check the internet for settings, etc. to get everything working. It's been 10 years since I built one, and things have moved on a lot in that time. The basics are the same, but I know everything else will be different and I'll end up getting the hump. I have very little patience.

I am thinking of going down the AMD processor route though. Specifically the A10-5800K. And I've just read that you can 'crossfire' it (see, it's already going over my head) with a 1GB HD 6570 graphics card to get better performance.

Seriously building is probably easier now than ever. My last one I put together in maybe 1 hour 45, installed windows 7, and was ready to go.

That crossfiring version won't be anywhere near as good as the 7850 above. For gaming I'd say you are better with the i3. If you went for about 60-70 quid more though, you could get a top of the range AMD 8core processor.

If it's only during cut scenes it's happening and it's perfectly ok with other sources I wouldn't have thought it's an issue with the setup. Have you checked latest drivers etc?

Just waiting on delievery of a GTX 660. I'm slightly concerned as I didn't realise the power connector is on the top of the card which could be an issue for me as it's going into a HTPC case so it'll be a bit of a squeeze!

Hopefully the 6-pin cable from the PSU is flexible to be bent at more or less a right angle else it could be a bit of an issue

"we still consider Intel's Core i3-3220 to be a good starting point for gamers who might upgrade to a faster LGA 1155-based processor in the future."

Bear in mind the i3 is only Dual core, hence why ideally the AMD below or an i5 will give you better long term performance.

The AMD FX-8350 4ghz - Digital Foundry suggested it might be a good long term processor choice as it's almost identical to those in the PS4/720. In the short term it's probably a little better than the i3, but in the future it should come into it's own as more threads are utilised better. It's cheaper than the i5 3750K which would be the Intel step up from the i3.

The NVidia 650 Ti Boost 2gb is roughly equivalent to the 7850. Whichever you get, try and get a 2gb model, as 1gb RAM on the graphics card will probably prove a bottleneck in the future.

Just ordered my gigabyte GTX 660 OC.
Am excited to replace this damn overheating POS 5850, its been trouble since ive had it really. Wanted to wait til new consoles are out, but the performance is shit.

Given that both new consoles are AMD based, how likely is it that, going forward, AMD gpu's may have a better future given the propensity for ports/multi-platform releases?

I'm still happily rocking a gtx 580 that I bought at release, been an excellent purchase that I'll probably get another year out of. I just wondered if, specs notwithstanding, AMD card's may have a rosier future than Nvidia gpu's as they'd presumably benefit from better compatibility with consoles which, however unfortunate it may be, will be the target hardware for the lions share of releases. I'm thinking in the vein of how, generally, 360 ports were better than PS3 versions due to similar architecture to a PC.

@DodgyPast I don't think there is that level of difference, but I've seen it said from a few sources that once games are designed to better use multiple cores (which they will if based on 8core AMD consoles) they should be a good gaming buy.